There are a lot of studies lately going back and forth on whether
or not smoking pot is harmful to your brain. Does it lower your IQ? Is that
change is permanent, or does it only last for the duration that you are smoking
it? Here’s the scoop:
EVERYTHING YOU DO CHANGES YOUR BRAIN. Everything. Large or
small, it all has an effect. You’ve heard me say this before, a bazillion
times. Purposefully
doing things to enhance cognition will improve your brain. Doing things
that hinder cognition will hurt your brain long-term.
Why?
Forget about whether or not pot actually kills brain cells
or synaptic connections on a chemical level. What’s worse about pot is that it
kills your motivation. Also, it slows your reaction times. This means your
world is in slow motion and you’ve embraced the Honey Badger mentality of
cognition: you just don’t give a fuck.
So you won’t be spending your time reading, or engaging in cognitively
intensive activities that challenge your brain in a meaningful way, enhancing
cognition. You will be getting LESS smart every
single day that you smoke pot, because you aren’t pushing your brain to be
in top form, thinking at the highest level you can. You are cruising through
life, doing the bare minimum when it comes to cognition. You aren’t challenging
yourself; you are coasting. Coasting is not one of the Five
Ways to Increase Intelligence.
I know some people claim that smoking pot helps them ‘think
more creatively’, but what it really does is get super-inflexible thinkers to
break out of their rigid thinking pattern. The true quality of their ideas
isn’t necessarily any better. Not to mention, non-rigid and weird does not
equal successful creativity, either. But if that is your goal, then hey—smoke
away. But don’t think it is making you smarter, because it isn’t.
If you want to get high now and then, that is your choice.
But if you truly care about IQ, intelligence, and performing at your cognitive
best, then smoking pot (especially very frequently) will hurt you. Bottom line.